Doctor, Heal Thyself!
by mystica88
Summary: A college girl is brought in and Dr. House has to find out what's wrong with her. Of course the need to diagnose becomes greater when it looks as though he might have gotten the same disease. Case form.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: this is my first attempt at a House fic so I hope it goes alright. I would like to say that I am not a doctor and have no medical training. I tried to research as best I could, but I know that at some points I'm just making stuff up and for that I apologies.

Disclaimer: Characters and PPTH… not mine ::sigh::

**Doctor, Heal Thyself!**

**Chapter 1**

Cassie walked into the common area of her dorm with a dish towel in hand. She quickly doused it in water and then placed it in the microwave, setting it for 45 seconds. Just then her roommate Ashley walked in.

"Your arm still hurting?" she asked as she noticed the towel spinning in the microwave.

"Yeah. I just can't figure it out. Three days and I haven't done anything that should make it hurt. And the hot towel and pain meds aren't doing much," Cassie said.  
"Maybe you should go to the doctor," Ashley suggested.

"Oh yeah. Oh hi doctor, I came in because my arm hurts… That sounds like the lamest excuse ever used to get a get out of class doctor's note."

"But it really doe hurt."

"Sure, but what is he going to do about some pain? I'd just get some stronger pain meds and be told to wait and see." The microwave beeped and she gingerly took the now hot towel out and wrapped it around her arm.

Ashley just shrugged to her roommate and walked into her own bed room. Cassie stood for a few minutes leaning against the counter, letting the warm absorb into her skin. It really wasn't helping the pain any, but it still felt good.

But as she went to return to her bed room, she realized that she had begun to sweat. She didn't think that she had made the towel that hot… But then again, there was also numbness to the skin, maybe she couldn't tell how hot the towel really was.

She pulled the towel off and looked at her arm, it was slightly pink, but not burnt. But then a wave of dizziness overtook her. She could feel her face flush as her body temperature rose. She began to panic as she became very weak. She knew enough that she needed to sit down before she fell down. She carefully gathered all the strength she had left and sat herself right on the floor.

She could feel her heart begin to race as her panic over what was happening built. She tried to call to her roommate, but found she was unable to. Then she was completely overtaken by the dizziness and heat as she fell over the rest of the way from her sitting position.

Ashley heard the strange sound and left her room to investigate. She found her roommate face down, flat on the floor as convulsions were quickly building through her body. "Cassie!" She yelled as she raced over and grabbed the girl, turning her over.

"Oh my God," she whispered as she jumped up again and grabbed the phone that was right next to her. She pounded out the number for 911 as she knelt beside Cassie once again, trying to hold the girl still as she continued to convulse.

"911, what's your emergency?" the operator asked.

"It's my roommate. She's having some type of seizure… I don't think she's breathing!"

"Keep her on her side," the operator instructed. "I'm sending an ambulance right now."


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

House was just about to enter the dreaded clinic when Cameron appeared out of now where.

"You're going to the clinic… willingly?" she asked.

House paused and looked at her. "Only to get something to wrap this in," he said as he held up his hand. There was a nasty looking cut across the back of it.

"What'd you do?" Cameron asked.

"Nothing," he said as he turned to continue to the clinic.

"Fine, don't tell me. But if you're looking for an excuse to get out of having to work the clinic today, I have a new case for you," she said, handing him a file.

He just looked down at the file, waiting for Cameron to tell him what it was all about. "21 year old female brought in last night. She was experiencing seizures and repertory distress. When she came to, she couldn't remember what had happened after she fainted though her roommate says that she appeared awake through out the ordeal.

"21 and memory loss. Alcohol poison, boring," House said as he turned to walk away.

"She's currently running a fever of 102 and she has had a pin in her arm for the last three days."

"Alright, some kind of STD. Again, boring," he said as he continued to walk away.

Cameron followed after her. "That's what the ER thought but all of her tests came back negative. And not only was she clean from STD's, she's a virgin. There's no way she could have gotten one in the first place."

"21 and she's a Virgin? Not likely. What is she fat? Ugly?"

"No, she's no super model, but she's quite pretty," Cameron answered. She didn't think this was a very good line of questioning to go on, but she knew that whatever House found as a mystery, he couldn't help but get involved.

House paused and looked down at the file Cameron was still holding out to him. "What kind of arm pain?" he asked.

"Paresthesias," she answered.

House reached out and took the file. Without saying anything more he turned from the clinic and started back for his office. _At least it could be a mildly interesting distraction that will get him out of some clinic time_, he though thought himself.

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Soon after the team was all assembled in House's conference room. He was leaning on his cane beside his white board, marker in hand.

"Alright we have…" he said, putting the marker up to the board, preparing to write her symptoms.

"Arm Paresthesias, Fever," Cameron said.

"Seizures, rapid pulse," Chase supplied.

"Disorientation," Foreman said.

"And repertory distress," House finished as he wrote his own comment. "Now, what is it?" he asked as he turned back to his team, capping his marker.

"Syringomyelia?" Foreman suggested.

"Not with the Fever," House answered.

"Spinal Meningitis?" Cameron supplied.

"Possible," House said as he wrote it down next to her symptoms. "What else?"

"Syphilous?" Chase asked.

"Unless it's a story related to the Virgin Mary, not likely," House said.

"She's a Virgin?" Foreman asked.

"So she says," House answered.

"And you believe her?" Chased asked in surprise.

"No, but I believe that usually when a girl has had sex their cherry is popped. When checking for STD's the ER found it in tact."

"Ok, well that rules out a lot," Foreman said.

"Let's test her for Meningitis and get an MRI."

Everyone nodded and left.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

He wasn't sure why, but House decided that he's go and meet their new patient. She was something of an oddity and he was curious about her.

House walked into her room and stood in the doorway, looking the girl over. Cameron and Chase were both in there, checking her O2 stats and drawing blood for testing.

"Who are you?" she asked, as noticed him staring at her.

"Janitor," he answered as he entered the room and sat in the chair next to her bed.

"Cassie, this is your doctor, Dr. House," Cameron said.

"Oh, so you're the one who they were warning me about," Cassie said as she turned to face her doctor.

House glanced up at Chase and Cameron and saw a slight embarrassed flush from Cameron and a barely disguised smile from Chase. "No, I'm sure they meant the other Dr. House. There's nothing to warn you about with me," he answered.

"Uh huh. You'er just a ray of janitorial sunshine who would never be condescending or a cynical prick."

"Cynical prick?" House said as he raised an eye brow up at his two minions.

"We never said that," Chase quickly said, looking surprised at Cassie.

"No, but it was implied," she said without a hint of remorse at having said it.

"Pity, I was about to congratulate you two on your honesty for once," House said.

Cameron and Chase both rolled their eyes and left the room, having gotten everything that they needed.

"So why are you here?" Cassie asked. "They said that you might not ever see me."

House was about to come back with some sarcastic remora when Cassie started coughing. Not sure what to do, he looked around and saw a piture of water next to a plastic cup. He poured her a cup of water and handed it to her.

She took it and quickly drank it. The water seemed to help sooth her cough.

"When did you start the coughing?" House asked as soon as she had settled down again.

"Just now," she answered and she took another sip of water, emptying her cup. House reached out to take the cup from her when she started choking again and coughed up so of the water she had been drinking, getting it all over his hand when he took the cup.

House just looked at her as she finished out her coughing. Finally she got control of herself again. "Sorry, it went down the wrong side," she said as he place her cup on the table and walked over to the sink to wash off his hand.

House didn't say anything, he had a new symptom to work with, he had all that he needed. He quickly left the room again.

"It was nice meeting you too," he heard Cassie call after him as he left.

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Foreman was in the conference room when House arrived again and went to the board to writing down the new symptom. Coughing, he wrote.

"She's having difficultly breathing and you think coughing is a significant development?" Foreman asked.

"It's something new. New is always significant," House said as he stared at the board.

"She's been getting better over the last few hours. She hasn't even needed the air mask to assist with her breathing and she seems fairly healthy to me now. Maybe it was just a virus that is getting better," Foreman suggested.

House was about to say something when first his beeper and then Foreman's went off. They glanced down and then quickly left the room, heading back to Cassie's room.

They entered just in time to see Chase connecting the ventilator to the tube that was shoved down their patient's throat. Apparently she needed to be intubated.

"What happened?" Foreman asked Cameron who was also near by.

"She couldn't breath. I was in here talking to her when all of a sudden she just wasn't able to pull in air anymore."

House looked at his patient and left the room again, going to ponder something else.

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Over the next few days they were unable to come up with anything, but Cassie seemed to be getting better again. She was able to breath alright with a nose mask so they were able to remove her tube. But even though she was looking better and her symptoms were lessening, she was getting weaker and weaker. She had been there for three days and they still weren't sure what was wrong with her.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

House leaned against the wall across from his patient's room, staring into space, thinking. It just didn't make any sense; he was missing something. He stood there for a long time, trying to wrap his brain around the problem.

He was so intent on his thoughts that he didn't notice how he had begun to sweat slightly. His face was becoming flushed as a fever silently crept up on him. He didn't even completely realize when his vision began to blur out. He thought that it was just from so much concentration.

But as he tried to pull himself back to reality, he realized that he wasn't able to. His eyes remained out of focus and now he was able to sense the heat that his body had been creating. For a brief second, he nearly began to panic. Whatever had hit him, came up extremely fast.

Planting his cane firmly on the floor, he tried to push off from the wall to transfer his wait to the cane. But as he did so, a sudden weakness rushed over him. He didn't even manage to move from the wall as his knees gave out under him and he found his body slowly slipping down the wall. His cane fell from his hand and clattered to the floor beside him.

"House?!" he barely heard Wilson calling. His friend had just been walking by as House began to fall.

By the time a shocked and out of it House reached the floor, Wilson was at his side, checking his pulse and feeling his face. His friend was burning up and had a rapid pulse. He didn't seem to be able to focus. House was looking at him with and eerie fear but was looking through him at the same time.

"House! What's happening?" Wilson demanded. By now, the nurses had realized that there was someone new who needed their attention now. A male nurse was sent off to grab a gurney as another nurse went to the two men to see if she could help.

Weakly, House's head lulled side to side. Wilson wasn't sure if it was House telling him that he didn't know or if his friend was loosing his motor control. He stared back at House, too stunned by his friend's sudden turn in health to be able to think clearly.

Just as the gurney arrived, House suddenly grabbed Wilson's arm that was holding onto his shoulder. His grip was crushingly tight as he stared at Wilson. Trying not to show how much House was hurting him, Wilson looked back. "Greg, hang on. We'll get you help."

The arm that held Wilson began to shake followed quickly by the rest of his body. In a matter of moments, House was seizing on the Hospital floor.

All of the commotion was heard in Cassie's room. The team was quickly pouring out to see what was happening. "Oh my God! House!" Cameron cried as she caught sight at who it was that was the center of attention.

"Let's get so help here!" Wilson was screaming as he kept his friend of his side, trying to keep the man from choking as he lost control over his body. "10 milliliters Diazepam, stat!" Wilson screamed to a nearby nurse.

The team raced across the hall to help. "What the hell happened?" Chase demanded as he was the first of the three to reach them.

"I have no idea. What ever it is, it hit him fast. One minute he was standing there, the next he was collapsed on the floor," Wilson hurriedly explained while Chase and Foreman helped to keep House stable as his seizure continued. Someone handed Wilson the syringe of Diazepam which he quickly injected into Houses shoulder. A moment later the seizure began to weaken and slow.

A moment later they deemed it safe to lift him and Chase, Wilson, and Foreman quickly got their friend and boss up on the gurney. Cameron pushed Wilson aside as soon as the guys had House on the bed. She had her stethoscope in her ears as she placed the other end on House's chest, listening for the heart beat.

She had to jog along as she worked while the others began to rush House down the hall to an unoccupied room near by.

"He's crashing!" she declared as they rushed along. Some one handed her a pump air mask which she quickly placed over his face and began to pump air into his lungs. It was just a moment later that they had him in the room as Chase had rushed ahead and prepared the diphibulator. The second that they were in place, Wilson grabbed House's shirt and tore it apart, exposing his chest.

"Charge to 250!" Chase called. He took a moment to place the paddles on his boss's chest. "Clear!"

A pulse of energy jarred House's body. Cameron reached up and checked for a pulse. "Nothing!" she said.

"Charge to 300!" Chase called. "Clear!" Another jolt.

By now, Foreman gotten all of the monitor's set up on House, they were now able to hear and see that his heart had not yet restarted. Wilson was pumping his friend full of as much adrenaline that a body could take in hope to convince his heart to start again. Cameron continued her work with the air mask.

"Damn it House!" Chase called. "Charge to 350! Clear!" a third jolt racked the body. This time a beep from the monitor sounded. His heart was going again.

"He's still not breathing on his own," Cameron said as she removed the mask and checked his breathing.

Foreman was right there with the intubating kit. It took just a few agonizing moments to get the tube down House's throat and have him hooked up to the ventilator. Everyone glanced up at the monitor to check on all of House's stats. His blood pressure was low, but it was stable for the moment.

Everyone took a small step back as they tried to collect themselves. Wilson felt as if he might have somehow injected himself with some of that adrenaline. Foreman and Chase exchanged looks of complete confusion while Cameron stared down at her boss, utterly shocked at what had just happened.

"What the hell?" Chase said again.

At a complete loss, Wilson just stared at his friend and shook his head.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

A few minutes later the four of them found themselves in House's conference room. "Alright, so now it looks as though we have two patients." Foreman stated as they entered the room.

"But why House?" Cameron demanded. "He was perfectly fine just a few moments before he collapsed. There can't be any connection between him and Cassie, can there?"

"No, her symptoms were slower progressing at the start. It took her days to have her first seizure. She hasn't been here long enough," Foreman said.

"Alright; so we don't have an epidemic on our hands," Chase stated.

Wilson stepped forward and picked up the dry erase marker from the white board. "No, we have two separate cases here," he said as he drew a line down the center of the board, sectioning off Cassie's symptoms. He drew a second line across the top and scrawled out Cassie's name above her symptoms and then wrote HOUSE above the other side. "So, what do we know so far?" he asked.

"Fever, disorientation, seizure," Chase began to list as Wilson wrote in almost unintelligible scratch.

As he wrote what Chase listed, Wilson said, "He had palpitations just before he seized."

"Repertory distress," Cameron said.

"And all of this was in rapid onset," Wilson said as he finished writing the last one out.

"That says to me either anaphylactic or toxin," Cameron said.

"Ok, Cameron, you run a full blood scan on House. You two… we need to keep working on Cassie's case. She's not going to stop getting worse just because our friend has gotten sick."

Chase and Foreman nodded. "What about you?" Chase asked.

"If he's having a reaction to something then chances are that something is still around. I get the fun job of poking around through all of House's stuff and everything that he has come in contact with in the last few hours," Wilson answered.

"Wait," Foreman said, staring at the white board. "Other than the rapid onset of this and lack of muscle pains, the symptoms are the same. And actually, Cassie's did hit her pretty fast except for she had the muscle pains for days"

"Not to mention that a fever isn't necessarily consistent with a toxin… especially a rapid acting one," Chase brought up.

"Maybe we do have an epidemic," Cameron said as she realized that this was true.

"I doubt it," Wilson was saying. "But maybe we should get the two of them into an isolation room just in case."

They all agreed. It just seemed like too much of a coincidence to not err on the safe side.

"Foreman, you should run a full blood work on Cassie as well. It may be something that they both have come in contact with. Chase, search her room and her cloths that she was brought in with," Wilson said.

Everybody nodded and quickly left to go do their jobs. Wilson stayed behind and watched as the other three left. He was still reeling from the shock of it all. Taking a deep breath, he turned and entered into House's personal office to begin his search. He really was the best one for this task.

House may not confide everything in Wilson or trust him one hundred percent, but he was his best friend. If anyone had to be the one to go through his stuff, Wilson was sure that House would choose him.

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"What's going on?" Cassie asked as Chase and Foreman entered her room again.

The two exchanged as look, not sure if they really should tell her. "You all rushed out of here so fast and I thought I heard Dr. House's name being called," She said.

Chase nodded as Foreman began to explain while he drew some blood. "Dr. House collapsed outside. He was showing similar symptoms to yours when you were brought in, but it all hit so fast we're pretty sure that it's not connected."

"But we're going to move you and him to an isolation room, just incase whatever it is contagious," Foreman said.

"Oh my God," she exclaimed. "Is he alright?"

"He's stable for right now, but he hasn't waken up yet," Chase answered.

"I hope this isn't my fault," she said.

"I don't see how it could be. Even if the diseases are related, I'm sure that it's nothing that you did on purpose so it can't be your fault," Chase said

"But if he caught something from me then it is," She said.

"That's incredibly unlikely, he had hardly met with you for a few minutes and Chase, Cameron and I have spent much more time with you and are not showing any symptoms." Foreman explained while prepping her to be moved.

Cassie nodded, "I guess you're right."

Foreman nodded while Chase left to grab a wheel chair for her.

"What was the blood for?" Cassie asked.

"We're going to check your blood for any type of toxins that you might have gotten," Foreman answered her. He slipped the vial of her blood in his lab coat pocket and nodded to Chase as he returned with the wheel chair.

Chase began to help Foreman to get her ready. "I need to check the stuff you were brought in with for anything that might have caused an allergic reaction or delivered some type of toxin to your system."

Cassie nodded, she was clearly becoming weaker again as she leaned back into her pillow and closed her eyes.

"Hey, you alright?" Chase asked.

"Well I am a patient in a hospital so that's a rather stupid question," she replied weakly, keeping her eyes closed.

Chase checked her monitor and saw that she was still about the same that she was before and shook his head smiling. "You and House certainly do have a lot in common," he said.

Cassie took a deep breath and let it out before saying. "I might be sarcastic, but I hope I'm not quite as much of an ass."

"That wouldn't be possible," Foreman said as he signaled her to set up and swing her legs over the bed. He was about to help her off and into the wheel chair when suddenly they could hear some yelling from a near by room.

"House, don't!" Cameron's voice could be heard. "Stop, just let it be!"

Chase and Foreman quickly exchanged a glance before Chase dashed out of her room and ran the short distance to where House was.

He entered to find Cameron struggling with House to keep his breathing tube in. House obviously decided that he didn't need it any more and was trying to pull it out himself.

"Damn it House! At least let _me_ take it out!" Cameron was yelling.

But at that moment House was able to shove her away long enough for him to grab a hold of the tube and yank it out. He immediately began gagging and coughing, but he was obviously breathing on his own now.

Chase raced over to see if there was anything he was able to help with. "For being so smart, you really are stupid sometimes," he said, reaching House's bedside.

House was still coughing but he was able to spare a glare directed at both Cameron and Chase as he slowly regained control over his breath.

"If Cameron was doing her job, she would have realized that I didn't need that damn machine anymore. And besides, I usually find it difficult to talk when I have a tube shoved down my trachea," he rasped as Cameron started to pull the ventilator with all of the tubing out of the way.

Chase pulled out his pen light and attempted check House's pupil dilation. House let him, though with an air of why-the-hell-are-you-hovering-over-me attitude.

"Symptoms?" he suddenly asked as Chase back away.

"What? Yours?"

"No, Barney the purple dinosaur… Of course mine!"

"Fever, disorientation, elevated heart rate, repertory distress…," Cameron supplied quickly.

"Seizure and cardiac arrest," Chase finished.

"Seizure and Cardiac arrest?" House asked.

"Oh, so now you're going to play the let's repeat everything I say in question form?" Chase responded

"Hey, leave the sarcasm to the master," House retorted. He thought for a moment. "I remember falling and then Wilson saying something asinine about getting me better and then I blacked out."

"That was when you seized," Cameron said.

House sat back, deep in thought for a moment. "Memory loss, just like the girl…" he was saying almost to himself.

"Yeah, your symptoms and hers are a lot alike, but I don't see how you can be related. You barely had any contact with her and you were hit much too fast," Chase said.

"Yeah, two people, who had never met before and had been healthy before, meet for the first time and are now exhibiting similar symptoms. There's no way that they could be related," he said, rolling his eyes.

"House, hers took a while to develop and you have only been to see her once," Cameron said.

"A toxin could remain dormant in the body for a while and then work rapidly," House muttered

"Yeah, that's what we thought too. That's why I'm here," Cameron said as she waved the needle she pulled from her pocket.

"Oh, you mean you weren't just here because you care?"

"I'm here to figure out what's wrong with you," she said.

House rolled his eyes and held out his arm, palm up, to Cameron.

"I hope that you're doing the same for the girl as well," House said to Chase as Cameron began to draw his blood.

"Foreman already drew some and will take it to the lab as soon as he has her set up in the isolation room," He answered

"Which is where you'll be going as soon as I get your blood," Cameron said as she pulled the now full vial of blood from his arm.

House rolled his eyes. Great, he was going to be stuck in a bubble until he was able to solve whatever was getting them.

"I thought you guys said that you didn't think our cases were related," he said.

"House you know perfectly well that we have to isolate you two until we are able to completely rule out the possibility of this spreading," Cameron said.

"Sounds like someone has been listening to Cuddy too much…" House said, but realized that he was probably not going to get himself out of this one. "Now, you should be checking…"

"Cassie's clothing and items as well as her room for any toxins or anything that both of you might have had a reaction to," Chase finished for him as he disconnect all of the monitors that they had hooked up to House.

"Wow, I should get sick more often," House said. Suddenly House looked around the room and asked, "Where's Wilson?"

"What, he can't be busy with something else?" Cameron asked as she removed the needle and pocketed the vial of blood.

"Not when his friend is dying."

"You're not dying now," Chase answered. In fact, the monitors all read that House was steadily improving before they pulled them all off.

"Yeah, but Cassie got better before she got worse as well."

"Hey, you actually remembered her name!" Cameron exclaimed.

"Shouldn't you be taking that blood to the lab now?" House said, glaring at her. She rolled her eyes and left but only to go get the wheel chair.

"So where is Wilson?" House persisted.

"Working," Chase answered.

"Uh, huh… Wilson is too much of a bleeding heart to be able to work while his friend is sick from some unknown cause. So if he's not at said friend's bedside, then he must be trying to solve the mystery himself."

"Wow… how'd you figure that one out?" Chase asked, rolling his eyes in sarcasm.

"He's doing that same thing for me that you're supposed to be doing for Cassie… isn't he?"

Chase didn't answer right away, not sure if House was going to call a halt to it or not.

"Your silence is all the answer that I need. You realize that it's a waist of time. It was the girl that got sick first so I doubt that it's anything that I have that would be affecting her."

Chase just looked back at his boss, not sure how he was expected to respond.

"Oh well, Wilson's not going to find anything but at least he can feel as if he's doing something," House said, as Cameron returned with the wheel chair.

"And what's that for?" he demanded eyeing the wheel chair.

"What do you think? I told you we have to get you into the isolation room."

"You're not wheeling me down there like some common invalid patient. I am perfectly capable of hobbling myself down there," He said.

"House, you know we can't let you do that," Cameron said.

"Watch me," House replied as he swung his legs over the edge of the bed and looked around to see if his cane was nearby… "As long as one of you supply me with my cane that is," he said.

"House, your cane was broken in all of the mess trying to save your life," Chase lied. Actually it was fine but they had taken it away knowing that if House was able to get a hold of it once he woke up, it would be near impossible to keep him in bed. Obviously they were right.

House rolled his eyes. He suspected that Chase was lying, but just then Wilson appeared.

"Well, it's good to see that you're awake… I think," Wilson said.

Cameron looked to Wilson and said, "He's your friend, you convince him that he can't walk himself to the isolation room."

"And now I realize that I am wrong," Wilson said. "It would be better if we had gotten you locked in your cell before you woke up."

"Sorry to make your life more difficult. Next time I'll make sure that I lapse into a coma just to make your life easier." He answered. "And you," he said to Chase. "Don't you have something you should be doing?"

Chase shook his head in frustration and left, walking back to Cassie's former room.

"I'm not kidding House; you are not walking down there. You just had a heart attack, you shouldn't be walking around," Cameron said as Chase left.

"No, let him," Wilson said.

"Thank you," House said, nearly as surprised as Cameron.

"After all, he's always looking for more things to happen to his patients in order to diagnose them. Maybe if he had another seizure or heart attack we'll be able to diagnose him faster."

"Oh, I like that. You're trying to be me," House said with a humorless laugh.

"Damn it House, just get into the chair. I promise you that your pride can't get hurt any worse than it already has today. Half the staff already saw you collapse so it would be pointless to pretend that nothing's wrong," Cameron said.

"She's really taking all the fun out of this," House said in a stage whisper to Wilson.

"Get in the chair!" she said.

"You know, you're really pissy when you get concerned," House said as he got off the bed and used it as a support to get into the wheel chair.

"And you're an asshole all of the time," Cameron said as she began to wheel him out of the room.

"Oh, such wit. Maybe you're the one after my job."

Wilson shook his head as he followed them out the door. This was going to be a very long day.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

House lay in the isolation room, still pondering over what they might have. If the blood tests turned up negative, he just couldn't see what the connection might be. This whole thing didn't seem right and now he was sick as well.

At least that's what it seemed like, but he felt perfectly fine now. Well, other than his leg anyway. It was then that he noticed that his leg was throbbing more than it usually would. But of course that had to be because he hadn't had any of his Vicodin in a while and they were probably not anywhere near by.

He began to look around, hoping to spot his bottle or his jacket that would have the bottle in it. Of course they were no where to be found.

He glanced up at the monitor next to him and noticed that everything looked perfectly fine. He felt fine, and all of the readings indicated that he was fine. There seemed no reason to be isolated in here while he had both himself and the girl to diagnose.

He threw off his covers and swung himself off his bed and used it to help support himself as he limped over to the phone.

"Wilson," he said as soon as his friend picked up the phone House's conference room. "I want you and the kids down here now with the white board so that we can go through this!"

"House, I think you're taking the phrase, 'Doctor, heal thyself,' too far," Wilson answered.

"I'm fine and I am not going to leave my life solely in the hands of a bunch of idiots like you. Now get down here!" he said as he slammed the phone down.

"And he's supposed to be your friend?" a weak voice sounded from across the room.

House looked over to where Cassie had been sleeping a moment before. He decided to ignore her for now as he limped back over to his bed and sat down heavily on it.

"Are you really as brilliant as they claim, or are you all talk?" she asked as she sat up a little.

He still didn't feel like talking to her so he lay back down and tried to will his team to hurry up.

"The silent treatment huh? You must really be pissed with me for getting you sick too."

"We don't know if that's true," he answered monotone.

"But it's what you suspect. And since you're such a genius, it must be true."

"What do you want from me?" he asked, sitting back up and looking at her.

"Just thought I'd make our time together a little more amusing. I'm sure that you're getting pretty bored being cooped up down here without your team or friend to antagonize."

"Well thanks the sentiment, but why don't you go back to sleep as I work on saving your life?"

"Suite yourself," she said with a weak shrug and laid back down herself and was soon once again asleep.

"Why god? Why do I have to have such an asshole for a friend?" Wilson said as he showed up with the ducklings in tow. Foreman carried the infamous white board with him.

"I could ask the same question," House said. "What kind of friend leaves a death bed to go poke around in the friend's private stuff?"

"That sound's a lot like you," Wilson said.

"Oddly enough, it wasn't… this time. I expect you found nothing of interest."

"You mean other then your doll collection?"

"Ha, ha. Very funny. You didn't actually think that you would find something did you?"

"No, but it was fun to use as an excuse,"

"Sure it was. Now as the good friend that you are, could you kindly bring me my Vicodin while my team and I get to work."

Shaking his head, Wilson said, "You are unbelievable. You nearly die and now all you can think about is your next fix?"

"That's generally how addiction works. Now, are you going to make me beg?"

Wilson sighed and left once again.

"Alright, differential diagnoses," House said, rubbing his hands together.

"Are you sure we should be doing this with the patient present?" Cameron asked.

House looked over at Cassie. From his angle he was able to see her open her eyes and give him a wink before closing them again and pretending to be asleep.

"She's asleep," he replied.

"But she could wake up at any time," Cameron persisted.

"No she won't. She was annoying me a while ago so I gave her a dose of Haldol. She'll be out for a while."

"House!" Cameron exclaimed.

"Oh, seriously. Do you think I would actually do that?" he asked.

"Yes," all three said in unison.

"Ok, maybe I would. But it doesn't matter. You are going to need my help and since you won't let me leave here, we're going to have to work with the patient present. Actually this might help us move faster since we won't have to go running to her room every time we have a knew question or she develops a new symptom."

"Or you could scare me to death with all of the outrageous diseases that you think I might or could have while you're trying to pinpoint what it is I really have," Cassie said, deciding that it no longer mattered if the rest of the team knew she was awake or not.

"You didn't drug her?" Chase asked, rather surprised.

"No but I could if it would help us get started here," he replied.

"Fine, let's get going." Foreman said, pulling a dry erase marker from his pocket.

"Who said you could write Foreman?" House asked.

"Well obviously you can't, being separated by the glass wall and everything," Foreman answered.

"Unfortunately true. But that doesn't mean that you're the one who gets to write."

Foreman rolled his eyes. "Fine then, who writes?" he snapped

"Well you of course. I can't stand looking at girly handwriting," House said with a little of an emphasized look at Chase. "Of course with that reasoning, Cameron could possibly be able to do it."

Chase looked pissed but was trying to ignore him. Both Cameron and Foreman ignored the comment and waited for House to continue with something useful.

"Tough crowd today. Everyone must be so overcome with worry that they just don't have it in them to find me funny today."

"House, we never find you funny," Cameron said.

"No wonder you haven't figured what's wrong with me yet," Cassie said from her bed. "All you guys do is argue with each other."

"See, I told you we just all needed to get a long," House said. "Alright, we have the list of symptoms I see. At least, I kind of do. Who wrote that anyway?"

"I did," Wilson answered as he came into view once again. "And if you want your precious pills, you better not make some scathing comment about my hand writing."

"Fine," House said. "Foreman, could you please rewrite the symptoms so we can read them. It seems some anonymous doctor thought it would be great to impersonate a chicken on our board."

"What, you want me to withhold you're pills?" Wilson said.

"One, I never said anything about it being yours. Two, withholding them would be cruel and unusual treatment."

"Only for Cassie," Cameron muttered.

"Well for her sake, I also brought along his ball and game boy," Wilson replied as he place the Vicodin, ball, and game boy in the air lock.

"I'm not any good at video games," Cassie answered.

"Good, cause it's not for you anyway," House said as he limped over to the air lock.

"Trust us Cassie, you don't want to be locked up in there with him if he begins to get bored," Wilson told her.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," House said as he popped the top of his pills and dry swallowed two of them. "And you'd think someone could have been nice enough to leave my cane for me."

They all looked slightly embraced but Cameron. "Well, you shouldn't have even gotten out of your bed, so there was no reason to put it in there," she said as if it was all perfectly logical.

"Uh huh. And when have you even known me to do what I am supposed to?" He said as he took the ball and game boy back to his bed and plopped down on it.

"Can we please go though this?" Foreman interrupted.

"Fine, like I said, differential diagnoses people."

"Myocarditis?" Cameron said.

"Doesn't account for the seizures," House responded.

"Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease?" Chase put in.

"Not with the fever," House answered.

"Leukoencephalopathy?" Foreman suggested.

"Someone want to explain why this is a bad idea?" House asked.

"It's not contagious," Chase answered.

"But we still don't know for sure if the two are related," Foreman argued.

"It's not Leukoencephalopathy… for either of us," House replied shortly.

"Fine, what is it then?" Foreman demanded.

"Tox screen back yet?" House asked ignoring Foreman.

"Not yet. Another hour I think," Chase answered.

"The most likely thing is a toxin. But could also be parasitical."

"In both of you and not us?" Cameron asked.

"Sure, why not?" House said.

"Because you were barely near her and person to person parasites are usually difficult to catch. It would be a more likely idea if it was one of us who were sick because we have spent far more time with her," Cameron explained.

"I'll first quote Foreman that our cases are not necessarily related. Second… you're just using this as an excuse to remind me how little I actually work with a patient."

"That has nothing to do with this," Cameron defended.

"Well he's going to get plenty of patient time in now," Cassie said with a wicked grin from her bed.

House glared at her before continuing on. "Alright, MRI, L.P. and an Antigen test."

"I get the MRI and the Antigen, but the L.P?" Cameron asked.

"Because I said so," House answered.

"Don't argue. He's just given us permission to stab him with a large needle. I don't know about you, but I have been waiting for this day," Chase said.

"Careful, I'm your boss. That means that I can stab you with a needle anytime I want with some trumped up drug charge," House answered.

"Oh and who here is the one that's a drug addict?" Foreman said.

"Just get to it," House snapped.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

Three tests later for the both of them found House and Cassie alone together once again in the isolation room. House was busy playing his game boy, waiting for his team to return with the tests. Cassie had been trying to sleep, but was finding the pain in her arm more and more difficult to deal with.

"So what would you normally be doing at this point if you weren't trapped in here?" she asked after a while.

"About the same thing only in my office," he grumbled back. Then he paused for a second and glanced at his watch. "Actually, right now I'd be watching General Hospital, but Wilson didn't bother to bring me my T.V."

"You watch General Hospital?" she asked amazed.

"I find it very relaxing," was all that he would say.

"So, you've got your ball and your game boy, what am I supposed to do," she sighed.

"Sleep. You haven't done much of that lately and your body could use it."

"It's hard to sleep when you're in pain," she answered quietly. She hated admitting that she was in that much pain, but she was sick of it.

House glanced up from his game and looked at her. He knew exactly what she meant. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his bottle of Vicodin. He took out one pill and called to her. "Here!" he said, tossing the pill across the room, landing it right on her bed sheets between her knees.

She reached down and slowly picked up the pill. Looking at it first, she seemed to consider if she really wanted to take it.

"If you don't want it, then give it back. I will make good use of it."

She shrugged and popped the pill in her mouth, dry swallowing it. "Thanks," she said.

House didn't answer, he was too much into his game again. A little while later, he could hear some soft snores coming from her side of the room. He smiled slightly to himself as he continued to play.

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Foreman showed up a little while later with the MRI scans. "There's nothing here House," he said as he brought them up to the glass for the doctor to view. House garbed his cane (Wilson had took pity and brought it for him) and walked over to where Foreman held the pictures up.

He took a moment to look over the scans himself. "Hmm," he said as he stared at the picture of his own brain. "That's odd."

"What, you see something?" Foreman asked.

"No, but I was sure that it should be bigger then that."

Foreman rolled his eyes as pulled the scan down from the wall.

"Where's hers?" House asked.

Foreman reached in the folder that he had pulled House's scan from and pulled out another one. He held this one up as well for House's viewing.

"Well, that's weird," House said.

"Now what?" Foreman asked, feeling rather irritated.

"I thought you said there was nothing there? Personally I didn't think that it would take a brain surgeon to spot this," House said.

"What are you talking about?" Foreman asked, taking the scan back and looking it over again himself.

"Take a good look. Notice any swelling?" House asked.

As Foreman looked over the scan, a look of frustration began to cross his face. "There's noth…" And then he saw it.

"Yes there is"

"But, why?"

"That's what we need to figure out," House answered. "Are the Tox screens back yet?"

"Yeah, Chase was about to get them and bring them down when I left."

"Good, call Cameron and get her down here as well. And it wouldn't hurt to have Wilson either."

"Wilson? You think it could be cancer? But then your cases are defiantly not connected."

"Well we did just find an anomaly between our two scans, didn't we?"

"Fine," Foreman said as he reached for his cell and punched up Cameron's number.

House walked back to his bed and sat down once again. He looked over to where Cassie was still sound asleep. He hoped that she would stay that way until after this session was over. It would probably not be good for her to hear his latest theory until they knew for sure that's what it was.

A few minutes later Chase appeared with the tox results and Cameron and Wilson were close behind him.

"Alright, what have you got Chase?" House asked.

Chase pulled a paper from the folder that he was carrying and looked at it as he spoke. "There are no toxins evident in either of your blood streams."

House stuck out his hand and waved it, towards himself, signaling for Chase to put the paper to the wall so he could look at it himself. He got down off his bed once again and walked back to the wall, looking at the paper that Chase was now holding up.

"Alright, so our best guess is now wrong," he said as Chase brought the paper back down.

"Any word on the L.P. or the Antigen?"

"No parasites were present," Cameron answered.

"The L.P. is not back yet," Wilson answered.

House nodded before he spoke again. "Foreman, show them Cassie's MRI," he said, walking back over to his bed and sitting once more. As he sat, he pulled out his bottle of pills again and popped too more. He must have done something to his leg when he collapsed because it was really killing him today.

The four of the other doctors crowded around the scan that Foreman pulled out once again.

"Is that swelling?" Wilson asked pointing to an area on the scan.

"Yeah, any ideas?" Foreman asked.

Wilson looked back to where house was now sitting on the bed. "That means that you're not connected to her then," he said directly to his friend.

"Why? What is it?" Cameron asked.

"Well the main cause for swelling in that spot is a tumor," Wilson said, turning back to the others.

They all looked back to House to confirm if that was what he really thought too. He nodded once before saying, "Get a Myelogram. That should give us a better look at whatever it is."

The others nodded and set out to do what he told them to.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

It was a while later that House and Cassie were once again left alone together, waiting for test results. House was lying back on his bed, tossing his ball up and catching it again rhythmically.

"Can't you find something less annoying to do?" Cassie asked.

"I could, but that wouldn't be any fun."

Cassie listened to the ball leave his hands and thump solidly back several more times. She was trying to sleep again, but the pain was back and that ball was driving her crazy. "If you won't knock it out, you could at least give me one of those pills again.

She listened as the ball left his hands again but the solid thump of it returning to his hands never came. It sounded as if the ball missed him completely and hit the soft bed and rolled onto the floor, bouncing a few times.

"Dr. House?" she asked as she opened her eyes and looked over to where he was lying.

It looked as if he was trying to signal to her. She then realized that it sounded as if he was choking. There were soft gasping noises that signaled that he wasn't receiving enough air.

He was trying to roll off the bed, presumably to get something to help himself, but he didn't seem to be able to find enough strength to do so.

Cassie Quickly threw off her covers and jumped out of her bed. A rush of disorientation and dizziness rushed over her as she found herself standing. She took a few deep breaths through the nose mask that she still wore to aid her own breathing and then she threw it off as well as all the wires and monitors that she was still connected to.

She walked as fast as her ailing body would allow across the room to where her doctor was quickly turning blue. He looked at her in a way where she felt for sure that he was trying to tell her what she needed to do, but she just didn't know. All that she knew was that he wasn't getting air. She could sympathize with him as she was finding it difficult once again to breath now that she was no longer having the oxygen rich air pumped though her nose.

Not knowing what else to do, but she that he didn't have much longer, she took as big a breath as she was able to and bent over, placing her mouth on his and breathing out. She could feel her air transfer into him and his chest rose, receiving the air. She released and coughed from the exertion but as soon as she was able to, she took another breath, this one not nearly as full as the last and breathed it into the doctor once again.

It was then that Doctors Cameron and Chase rushed into view just outside of the sealed room. They were quickly followed by several nurses.

"What's going on?" Chase demanded as he saw Cassie standing over House, trying to take another breath.

"He… Can't breath," she panted as she got another small breath and transferred it once again to him.

Chase was in the entrance, rushing to put on his isolation suite but Cameron didn't even pause to grab hers before she rushed into the room.

"What are you doing?" Chase called after her.

She didn't answer as she reached out and caught a fainting Cassie. "Chase get in here now!" She called as she lowered Cassie to the floor and looked up to House. He was still trying to draw breath but didn't seem able to.

Chase gave up on the suite and followed quickly in as well, grabbing Cassie and helping her back to her bed, shoving the nose mask back on. "Are you alright now?" he asked hurriedly. She nodded weakly and waved him to go back to his boss.

Chase turned and looked back to where Cameron was quickly working on House along with the two nurses. It looked as thought they were getting everything under control. Cameron had pulled out a face pump mask like she had used on him before and used it to breathe for the doctor while the nurses grabbed the intubating kit and prepared to use it. Obviously he was able to receive air since they had all witnessed Cassie giving him mouth to mouth but for some reason he wasn't able to draw it in himself.

Chase quickly crossed the room and took the kit from the nurse and nudged Cameron aside. Quickly, he used the tool to force the tube down House's throat. In a matter of moments, he was once again hooked up to the respirator.

Cameron watched until she was sure that House was getting the air that he needed before she turned back to Cassie. She was still stilling on the edge of her bed, looking pale and out of breath. "Cassie, are you alright?" she asked as she walked back over to the girl.

Cassie nodded as she concentrated on breathing through the oxygen rich mask. Cameron reached her and helped her the rest of the way back into her bed and then reached up to adjust the oxygen level that her mask was giving her. Cassie took a few more breaths of the slightly richer air and then nodded that she was doing much better.

Cameron watched her closely, not sure what to say or do. She was breathing now it appeared, but she had obviously found it difficult breathing away from the air. Finally she decided that Cassie was going to be alright now and said, "That was a very good thing you did."

Taking another breath Cassie answered. "I couldn't very well let the man who's trying to save me die."

Cameron glanced back to where house was now lying, intubated once again. "You very well may have just saved his life," Cameron said, almost more to herself then to Cassie. A moment later she shook of the odd feeling that had crept over her and turned back to Cassie. "You barely were able to get enough air for yourself, what made you think that you would be able to have enough for him too?"

Cassie shrugged. "I don't know, I just knew I had to try. The first time that I couldn't breathe back upstairs was the most terrifying thing that I had ever experienced and I had you in the room when it happened. All I could think then was that help couldn't come fast enough. When I saw that the same thing was happening to Dr. House, I couldn't just let him suffer like that. I knew how terrifying it is to go though that, and he didn't have another doctor as near by as I had. All there was, was me. I hope that what I did was right. I'm sure I surprised him when I put my mouth on his."

Cameron smiled slightly. "You probably did. But under the circumstances, what you did was perfect. You kept him breathing until we were able to help."

Cassie nodded and lay back once again against her pillow. "He's going to be alright?" she asked. "He should be fine as long as he doesn't try and pull the tube out again," Cameron said.

"Good. I think I'm going to go to sleep again now," she answered.

Cameron smiled again at her, "That's a good idea," she said as she pulled the covers up over Cassie and walked back to where Chase was still standing over their boss.

Chase looked up at Cameron, "How is she?" he asked.

"She'll be fine," Cameron said. She looked down at House. He looked a lot better then he had a few minutes ago when she had first reached his side. He had a tinge of blue when she first saw him, now his color was rapidly returning.

He looked back at her, unable to talk with the tube shoved down his throat. He held out his hand and snapped his fingers. He pantomimed writing with his hand and then snapped his fingers once again.

Chase reached into his pocket and pulled out a pen while Cameron sought out a note pad. They each handed him their piece.

House took it and wrote out "Not Cancer!"

Chase nodded. "Apparently not. It's pretty obvious that your two cases are connected now."

He wrote again, "Myelogram? L.P.?"

"The L.P. revealed some bacteria cultures, Foreman is testing them right now to determine what kind. The Myelogram showed some type of cyst or growth in her spine, but before now, we figured that it was cancer," Cameron explained.

House thought for a moment then wrote, "Broad spectrum antibiotics and Prednisone and get an Angiography of her arm and my leg."

"Your leg? Why?" Chase asked.

House quickly jotted down, "because it hurts your idiot. Just do it!"

Chase and Cameron rolled their eyes and huffed off.

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"It Staphylococcal," Foreman announced as the gathered once again in the conference room.

"That's the bacteria that you found in the spinal cord?" Wilson asked as he poured himself a cup of coffee.

"Yup. Good thing that we have them on antibiotics now," he answered back.

"But why the Prednisone? And why did House want us to do an Angiograph on them?"

"Might be the lack of oxygen," Chase half heartedly suggested.

"Well, that might not be a bad idea," Wilson said. "He nearly dies again and now he wants us to do something that might have saved him the use of his leg eight years ago. He may be confused as to what is really happening."

"You think that he thinks it's another Infarcture?" Cameron asked, rather surprised.

"It's possible," he said with a shrug.

"Well it doesn't really matter. The Prednisone shouldn't cause any harm if it's not and neither will the Angiograph," Chase said.

"Are you saying we should just humor him?" Foreman asked.

"Why not? That's what we would do if he was here and not the one that was sick. That's all we ever do… go about administering tests and medications that we have no idea if they're what the patient needs or not," Cameron replied.

Foreman shook his head but dropped it.

Just then Cameron's beeper went off. She looked down at it and then stood up saying, "The Angiographs are in."

Everyone else followed her out of the room and down to where they could get the scans. Cameron got them and then turned around, placing the photos up on the viewing light as the others huddled around. After a few moments of looking, Foreman suddenly pointed to something on House's scan as Cameron spotted something else on Cassie's

"What do you know," Wilson said. "The SOB was right."

"But how? What would cause two infarctures in two different people?" Cameron asked.

"And what would be the chance that it would be in the same place as his last one?" Chase asked.

They all shrugged, but knew that they needed to get both of these two into surgery before it got any worse.

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By that time the next day, both House and Cassie were out of surgery and fully awake. They found that they were still in beds side by side, but now they were moved to a regular room. They were still hooked up to IVs of Prednisone and Antibiotics for both their blood flow and the infection that was still working its way out of their systems.

All four of the other doctors came in to check on their patients. Both were breathing fine on their own once again and looking much better. House was currently watching General Hospital on the TV in the room as Cassie was trying her hardest not to get sucked into it.

"Alright House, you're going to have to explain exactly what happen here," Wilson said as he entered.

"Well, isn't rather obvious, I just saved two lives, again. Only this time, one was my own," he said without ever moving his gaze from the TV.

"But how did you figure it out? It still doesn't make sense to us," Cameron said.

House sighed as he grabbed the remote and turned the TV off, relenting the fact that they were not going to let him watch it until they had their curiosity filled.

"Polyarteritis Nodosa," he stated.

They looked at him for a moment, wondering what that had to do with anything. Finally Chase broke the silence, "That's what caused the infarctions?"

"Yup. And the Staphylococcal caused the Polyarteritis Nodosa."

"But how did you know?"

"I realized that the pain in my leg was actually more then usual. I started to wonder if maybe I had the same muscle pains that Cassie had which was the only symptom that I was missing."

"So you did have the muscle pain, but because it was where you expect pain to be, you didn't even notice," Foreman said.

"That and the Vicodin. Never underestimate the power of Vicodin," House said.

"But why would it be in the same place as it was the last time?" Cameron asked.

"Because it is the area that has the most damage to it. Of course it would settle in a place where blood flow was already restricted."

"But why were your MRI and hers different? Why did she have that swelling?" Wilson asked.

"I wasn't as advanced as her. The swelling was caused by the pressure that the bacterial cyst was creating in the spinal column. Which is the same reason that we both were experiencing intermittent repertory paralysis. The cyst was growing and changing shape, pushing against the spinal cord and cutting off certain signals that the brain was sending."

"But how did you get the bacteria and we didn't" Chase pressed.

House looked at him for a moment before admitting, "Not sure. Maybe it's just my luck. This is the second time that I have almost died from the same thing."

"How is that bacteria spread?" Cassie asked from her bed.

"Any number of ways," Cameron said. "Usually from transfer of body fluids though."

"Like when I cough onto the cut that Dr. House had on his hand?" she asked.

They all looked at her, stunned that they didn't pick up on that. House glanced down at the cut that was still on his hand and realized exactly what had happened.

"Well that's the last time that I go and see a patient," he said.

"Like you do that very often as it is," Cameron sighed.

"Sorry, but I was choking on the water you gave, remember?"

"That was probably because of that cyst. You lost control over your throat muscles, causing you to choke," Cameron said.

"Yeah, yeah. Well, just don't let it happen again," House said as he picked up the remote again and flicked on the TV.

Everyone shook their head and strolled out of the room. As soon as everyone left, House sighed and turned the TV. Off.

"What, one you already saw?" Cassie asked.

"Of course, I've seen them all. But that's not why I turned it off."

"Uh oh, is this the part where the jerk suddenly shows that he has a heart while his friends are out of the room?"

"Hey, you should watch it before you really do turn into me. You nearly wound up with the same thing that everyone agrees put the top on my jerkiness. If you're not careful that sarcasm of yours could turn into the cynicism that I have."

"Don't worry, I doubt that anyone could ever get as cynical as you," Cassie said with a smile.

House half smiled, not sure what to say next. "Truth is," he started. "I thought I should say thank you for saving my life."

Cassie looked at her Doctor for a moment before saying, "your welcome, but can I ask you a question?"

"You just did," he answered.

"Knock it off," she demanded.

"Fine, go ahead," he said with a bit of reservation. This was not a subject that he necessarily wanted to be chatting about.

"Do all of the people you save always thank you?"

A little surprised at her question he answered, "Not always, but usually."

"And do you ever want them to? I mean thank you that is?"

He thought for a moment before saying, "No."

"Then why do you feel the need to say it to me if it's something that you don't even like to hear?"

He stared at her for a long moment, trying to decided what the point to her question was and then if he should even answer her. But she saved him from answering the last question. "I don't really need to know, but I think that it would be good for you to know," she said, leaning back into her bed and closing her eyes.

They lay there in silence for a while before House once again turned on the TV. Then, just before she slipped into sleep she heard him whisper, "Because I had to."


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9… Epilogue**

A year and a half later, Cameron came strolling up to house and handed him a letter. "What's this?" he asked.

"You remember that girl that had Polyarteritis Nodosa about a year ago and then transferred it to you?" she asked as he took the envelope from her and began to pull out the letter.

"Yes."

"Turns out that she has graduated with her bachelors in music education," Cameron answered. "I think that you should read this. You probably won't want to go, but you should at least respond to her," she said as she walked off.

House began to read the letter as he made his way back to his office and sat in his chair.

_Dear Dr. House… or maybe Dr. Cameron, since it will probably be her who reads this first,_

_I wanted to let you know that, thanks you your work, I have graduated with my bachelors in music education and am now currently teaching choir at the local high school. We are having our first concert in a few weeks and I thought that maybe you and your team would like to come. I know that you probably won't, but this is my way of saying thank you to you without actually saying it._

_I hope that you can come but if not, I understand…_

_Sincerely,_

_Cassie_

House sat down the letter on his desk and thought for a moment. A high school choir concert was not what he thought sounded like a good time. But there was something telling him that he should go anyway. He had liked that girl and she had saved his life as well.

Sighing he got up and we and found Cameron again.

"I'm going," he told her.

She was stunned at first and took a second to respond. "That's great!" she answered.

"Are any of you three coming?" he asked.

"I don't think that I can, but I'll check with Chase and Foreman."

House nodded and walked away.

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It turned out that he was the only one who was able to go. Even Wilson somehow found something else that he needed to be doing on that night.

When he got there, he quickly spotted Cassie, but tried to get into the auditorium before she saw him. Unfortunately, he was not fast enough. She saw him and waved him over to her. She worn a stunned yet excited smile.

"You actually came!" she said when he got closer to her.

"Yeah, don't let any one know though, it would ruin my image."

She laughed softly. "I can't make any promises," she answered. "But I'm glad to see you here. I hope you enjoy it. I have to go get the kids ready now," and with that she turned and walked away.

House went in and found himself a seat. It turned out that the band was playing first so he was going to have to sit there and listen to them for a while.

When it was the choir's turn, Cassie came to the front of the stage and addressed the audience before beginning.

"This first song is one that I chose specifically for a good friend of mine. It is a song I would like to dedicate to him as a thank you for all that he did for me. Without his help, I would never have made it where I am today."  
House squirmed in his seat as she talked. He prayed that she wouldn't mention who her 'friend' was.

"And since I know he's wondering why it is that I am doing this to him I have one thing to say… because I had to."

With that she turned and faced her choir and began the song.

_Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound_

_That saved a wretch like me._

_I once was lost, but now am found,_

_Was blind, but now I see._

_Through may dangers, toils, and snares_

_We have already come._

_Twas Grace hath brought us safe thus far,_

_And Grace will lead us home._

_When we've been there ten thousand years_

_Bright shining as the sun,_

_We've no less days to sing God's praise_

_Then when we first begun._


End file.
